History Extension Historiography Project - Grace O'Malley

10 Pages • Essays / Projects • Year: Pre-2021

History is primarily built from the actions of human beings throughout the past. Historical records throughout ancient and middle history all around the globe are preserved in a variety of ways such as orally or archaeology, to tell the stories of the individuals who had a significant impact on their society during their lifetime, and in some cases after their death. Unsurprisingly, due to the overriding misogynistic values that were extremely prevalent in majority of cultures before the 18th century, the absence of females in the great narratives of history is strikingly evident. This is likely due to the fact that women were unable to hold positions of power in patriarchal societies or because the male academics who wrote the accounts of ancient and middle history simply did not wish to acknowledge powerful women of their time. I discovered this great omission of women in history while conducting my initial research, and therefore aimed to investigate a historical female who has broken the constricting chains placed on her as a woman of her time, risen to a position of power and made an impact within her historical context. Granuaile, or Grace O’Malley as she is referred to by the English, was born to the Irish chieftain of the seafaring O’Malley clan. Over many centuries she has been dubbed by sources unknown “the Pirate Queen of Connaught” for her most notorious “maintenance by land and sea” on the West Coast of Ireland and her open rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I, the foreign English monarch who plagued majority of Granuaile’s life with her conquest of Ireland. Naturally, such a controversial woman has been painted as a villainess and as a heroine both before and after her death. These representations are what I have examined in my essay. Modern historians such as Anne Chambers, and the common Irish, who remember Granuaile through legend, poems and songs, view Granuaile in a positive light. In their eyes she is hailed as a patriotic matriarch of t16th century Ireland. Conflictingly, the English of the 16th and 17th century as well as Irish academics and historians perceive Granuaile in a much more sinister light. To them she was a “Nurse to all rebellions” who “overstepped the part of womanhood”, which these groups found hardly acceptable for a historical figure whom they wished their societies to remember. Nonetheless, this remarkable woman is one of the very few females whose legacy has survived until the 21st century.

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